OF NATURAL HISTORY. 26:5 



• 



fluence upon the fertility of the feeds, Spalanzani forced op- 

 en the petals, or flower-leaves, fome time before they began 

 to expand. He then cut off all the ftamina, or male parts, 

 before he fuppofed foecundating duft was ripe, leaving the 

 female part to its fate. The refult was, that, in many of the 

 plants, the feeds did not ripen, or even acquire their full 

 Hze ; in others, they grew to the natural iize ; but after be- 

 ing committed to the ground, they did not germinate. 

 Above thirty years ago, a fimilar fet of experiments were 

 made, in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, by the late 

 Dr. Alfton, the then ProfefTor of Botany. But, whether 

 Dr. Alfton's experiments were performed with greater dex- 

 terity than thofe of Spalanzani, it is impoflible to determine. 

 The event, however, was the reverfe ; for Dr. Alfton's 

 plants, which were treated in the fame manner with thofe of 

 Spalanzani, not only ripened their feeds, but thefe feeds, 

 when fown, were found to be as fertile as if no fuch opera- 

 tion had been performed. But no experiments of this kin4 

 can be made with any degree of certainty upon hermaphro- 

 dite plants ; becaufe they are impracticable, without wound- 

 ing and injuring the tender flowers. By forcing open the 

 petals fome days before they would naturally unfold, the in- 

 terior parts of the flowers are prematurely expofed to the 

 aiSlion of the air, of dews, and of the fun's rays. Beiides, 

 no man can determine what changes the young feeds may 

 undergo, what injury they may fufi^er, by an unnatural de- 

 privation of the ftamina. In every flower treated in this 

 rough manner, an extravafation of fap mufl: unavoidably be 

 produced. If a pregnant animal is wounded, and in a part 

 too fo intimately connedled with the foetus, what reafon have 

 we to expe<Sl a fertile and well-proportioned ofispring ? 



Spalanzani next proceeded to trials on the monoecious 

 plants, or thofe which bear both male and female flowers 

 feparately on the fame individual. In fpring 1777, he fow- 



